The Published but Still Unpaid Writer: The Second Coming!

First of all, it’s a sad state of affairs when you go to your blog to brag about your second publication to realize that you have no idea how to sign into your blog, nor do you remember how to make the post to brag about your newest accomplishment. You are a sad individual.

Yes, that happened today.

I love to write. I love to create characters, situations, drama, places, things, recreate history, happiness, despair, love and hate, and life and death. That’s what a writer and author does best. Some compare it to a God complex. I say I live in a different world that everyone would never want to leave if they had but a glimpse into it. It’s wonderful, magical, and full of woe and wonder. It’s not without its fair share of hurt, struggle, deception and pain. The highs are high; the lows are low. My characters move by my will alone, not theirs. They live for me and my happiness and amusement, and I give them happiness and amusement in return. And at the end of the day, I let them rest, and do it all again the next day. God complex? Perhaps. But it makes me smile, it makes me happy. And if the Old Testament and Greek lore taught us anything, it’s that you don’t want a pissed off deity.

I once heard that writing is not a young man’s game because it takes most of your life to get really good at it. There is a lot of waiting around, a lot of learning, a lot of editing, a lot of thinking, and a lot of daydreaming. In case you’re still not sure, it’s a lot of writing, rewriting, rewriting, rewriting, etc. Once you’ve written that awesome masterpiece, there’s a lot more waiting around. There are submissions, reading, finding that right audience, and submitting some more. Some submissions take up to 9-12 months to get that rejection or acceptance letter. And if you’re lucky enough to FINALLY get that acceptance letter, it might take up to a year before you actually see your work in print. The first acceptance letter I received for the story featured last month (June 2013) was received in October of 2012. I received my second acceptance letter back in February. The third letter came in over the weekend after a four-month wait and remarkably enough will feature my submission next month. But for the fourth acceptance, I won’t see that story in print until next April, 2014. Lots of waiting, what can I say?

I have 20 stories in all I’m trying to get out there while I work on the novel. I see much waiting in my future. I honestly wonder if this is how God feels sometimes. He planted a seed for a mountain and He’s still waiting for it to grow. How do we know Mount Everest is actually complete? Maybe volcanos are edits? Maybe earthquakes are re-edits? The hurricanes and tornadoes are just there to rearrange the words or paragraphs? Perhaps the ruins of cities and pirate ships which archaeologists are finding at the bottom of oceans are nothing more than a few sentences that God didn’t like, but he’s saving them just in case they come in handy in a different chapter. Your God, your writer has a lot of work left to do. Lots of waiting. Have you heard the joke that when you can’t remember what you’re about to say, it’s just the writer of your life backspacing and writing new dialogue? Go ahead, laugh. It’s funny.

My second story is out now, one that I am proud of because it’s a writing style that I began experimenting with in college and fell in love with. Not many attempt 2nd person narrative; not many do it well. I like to think I’m in the “well” category of it. But I could be wrong. My motto as a writer has always been “Whore for feedback.” If I’m a crappy writer, somebody please tell me. Some whores know when to hang up their stockings.